The Shoreham Adur Tidal Walls scheme features in the latest edition of the Environment Agency’s ‘Current’ magazine.

The quarterly magazine highlights innovation and good practice in projects carried out on behalf of the Environment Agency, in a bid to encourage the Agency and its partners to ‘innovate, share and standardise’ the delivery of projects for communities.

The July 2018 edition of Current features the on-going Shoreham Adur Tidal Walls scheme (page 12) – being carried out by Mackley as part of Team Van Oord and on behalf of the Environment Agency – in an article highlighting stakeholder success.

Work at Shoreham began in October 2016, and when complete the scheme will significantly reduce flood risk to more than 2,300 properties in Shoreham and East Lancing, as well as protecting important local infrastructure including the road network, railway line and Shoreham Airport.

The article highlights design modifications – including moving the 1,176 strong pile alignment half a metre inland so that the existing path and flood defence could remain in place to provide continual access for local residents.

This plan required some land to be taken from the residents, so the Mackley stakeholder engagement team met with the houseboat owners to explain the benefits.

“We have been treated so well, with great care being taken to let us know what is happening in advance, and to make sure that we are not inconvenienced more than is necessary.”

The article, written by Robert Pearson, Mackley’s Contracts Manager, also explains how ‘stakeholder engagement has helped the project progress’ – while looking at innovations such as the ‘pile refusal protocol’.

Robert Pearson said:

“Some residents told Team Van Oord that the existing embankment contained rocks and other obstructions that could hamper progress.

“So, following a risk reduction meeting, it was agreed that we would proactively manage risk, creating a pile refusal protocol to be followed if a pile encountered an obstruction.”

The July 2018 edition also includes articles focusing on innovation, building information modelling (BIM), programming and safety, health, environment and wellbeing (SHE&W).

The issue covers a number of projects carried out by Environment Agency Water and Environment Management (WEM) and National Cost Management Framework (NCMF2) partners, including Team Van Oord.